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Researchers Debunk Study Linking Abortion To Mental Disorders | A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research in 2009 that claimed to discover a causal association between abortion and subsequent mental health disorders isinvalid on account of fundamental methodological and analytical errors, say researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Guttmacher Institute. UCSF’s Julia Steinberg and Guttmacher’s Lawrence Finer noted in a letter addressed to the editor of the Jounal of Psychiatric Research that the findings reported by Priscilla Coleman were unable to be replicated as Coleman et al. had intentionally used incorrect weights in their analysis in order to “capture as many cases of mental health problems as possible,” a conclusion that has been confirmed by the Journal‘s editor. According to Steinberg and Finer, “rather than using 30-day or 12-month measures, Coleman et al.’s analysis included all mental health disorders occurring over the respondents’ entire lifetime, many of which occurred before any abortions, thus negating the causality argument.” Anti-choice activists regularly cite such research to advance their cause. — Fatima Najiy